Jotul F500 v3 Catalytic Activity

[bladeofanduril]

Hi all. It's finally cool enough out that I can fire up the stove. It was installed new this summer on the hearth of an existing masonry fireplace. The stove is piped through flexible single-wall up the chimney.

I've completed the three break-in fires per the manual and I have the first real fire going now. The stove is loaded with 4 small-medium sized splits consisting of a mix of spruce and ash. Moisture level for the wood is around 18% per my meter. The fire has been going for an hour or so now, with a good bed of embers forming. The stove surface temp is reading around 350f in the left-rear corner. The combuster monitor is reading 850f. I have the optional blower installed and set to auto - it kicked on about 30 minutes ago. I have the primary air control set right in the middle. I'm not seeing catalytic combustion. The cat is not glowing, and I'm not seeing flames shooting through the holes in the baffle. The cat activated for a few minutes earlier, but has since gone dark. Is this normal behavior, or is something not right? Thanks.

 

[bladeofanduril]

I raked the coals a bit and threw on two more splits. Now the cat is going. Combuster monitor is registering 1100F.

 

[Todd]

Sounds pretty normal for a small to medium load. You may have to burn a larger load to get the secondaries ripping along with a glowing cat. At an 850 cat temp it should be burning smoke, they don’t need to glow to be working and I don’t think they start to glow til you're closer to 1000.

Keep playing with it, it may take some time to learn the quirks of a new stove. Also keep us posted on how she performs, I haven’t seen many reviews of this stove lately and there were some issues reported here when the V3 first came out.

 

[bladeofanduril]

Sounds pretty normal for a small to medium load. You may have to burn a larger load to get the secondaries ripping along with a glowing cat. At an 850 cat temp it should be burning smoke, they don’t need to glow to be working and I don’t think they start to glow til you're closer to 1000.

Keep playing with it, it may take some time to learn the quirks of a new stove. Also keep us posted on how she performs, I haven’t seen many reviews of this stove lately and there were some issues reported here when the V3 first came out.

Thanks. So far, so good. Its heated the stove room from 65F to 80F and the heat is spreading through most of the house.

I read on here about two holes in the sides of the ash tray housing and I covered them with magnets, but found it was very hard to get a fire going even with the primary full open. It was just very lazy. So I pushed the magnets off of the holes and then it started picking up. I suspect they are only an issue if you have a excess of draft. While my house is nearly 100 years old and (I think) quite drafty, it's apparently not that drafty. It will be interesting to see how the stove behaves when I have to attempt an overnight burn. So far it seems to eat fuel pretty quickly, but I've been feeding it 50% or more spruce, so I guess that shouldn't be a surprise.

 

[kennyp2339]

Look outside, if you see heat vapors from the chimney only, then the cat is working

 

[begreen]

Large thick splits in the 5-7" range will burn slower, especially if the firebox is packed tightly with smaller pieces filling the voids.

 

[stoveliker]

If you don't see smoke outside, it's working.

Also draft is not how leaky your home is. It is how much the physics of the chimney pulls air through the stove.

How tall is your chimney?

 

[bladeofanduril]

If you don't see smoke outside, it's working.

Also draft is not how leaky your home is. It is how much the physics of the chimney pulls air through the stove.

How tall is your chimney?

It's about 25'.

 

[stoveliker]

If that is straight up (no elbows) you may have a bit strong draft. If you have elbows, I think it should be okay.

For the rest, before plugging holes etc., I'd play more with the air and when you dial it down. A large part of this is getting a feel for how the stove operates. It's good you follow the manual.

I second the above; don't judge a cat with how it glows. Judge it by what comes out of the chimney.

 

[bladeofanduril]

If that is straight up (no elbows) you may have a bit strong draft. If you have elbows, I think it should be okay.

For the rest, before plugging holes etc., I'd play more with the air and when you dial it down. A large part of this is getting a feel for how the stove operates. It's good you follow the manual.

I second the above; don't judge a cat with how it glows. Judge it by what comes out of the chimney.

Thanks. There is one elbow (really a T with a cleanout) at the back of the stove where it makes the turn up the chimney. If I open the door when it's going there is a decisive increase in the air being pulled in and I can audibly hear the draft.

 

[begreen]

The best thing to do is to learn the stove's behavior for now. It sounds like it's nicely controllable, so there may be no need to block boost air. As temps outside drop, draft will increase. Load the stove with thicker splits, packed tightly for the longest burn.

PS: how about a picture of that beauty with fire and lightshow going? We like fire here!

 

[Tithis]

We have a F500v3 and it certainly doesn't always have a glowing cat or much secondary burn going on. Last year we put 3+ cords through it, not all of which was very well seasoned (furnace died, so we had to use stuff I was gonna use this year mixed with biobricks) When we had it swept last month all we had was a bit of light fluffy creosote.

 

[Ashful]

Almost 100 year old house in PA. Still got the knob and tube? Original gas lines? Fun stuff.

I've owned or lived in a dozen old houses in PA, build dates from 1692 up thru 1953, with the last two being 1877 and 1734. I find those built 1890's - 1920's tend to have the most old or original wiring and mechanicals, requiring removal or remediation, as they were the new houses receiving the latest and greatest in their time.

 

[bladeofanduril]

Almost 100 year old house in PA. Still got the knob and tube? Original gas lines? Fun stuff.

I've owned or lived in a dozen old houses in PA, build dates from 1692 up thru 1953, with the last two being 1877 and 1734. I find those built 1890's - 1920's tend to have the most old or original wiring and mechanicals, requiring removal or remediation, as they were the new houses receiving the latest and greatest in their time.

No gas lines, but the home inspection uncovered knob and tube as well as asbestos insulating some of the radiator pipes. Thankfully we bought 10 years ago when the market wasn't insane and the seller remediated that stuff as a condition of sale. The biggest lingering issue for me are counter-weighted windows that badly need restoration and the lead paint I'm finding a few paint layers down. Oh well. My wife didn't want "cookie cutter".

 

[bladeofanduril]

The best thing to do is to learn the stove's behavior for now. It sounds like it's nicely controllable, so there may be no need to block boost air. As temps outside drop, draft will increase. Load the stove with thicker splits, packed tightly for the longest burn.

PS: how about a picture of that beauty with fire and lightshow going? We like fire here!

As you wish!

I think I've been a bit tentative about loading it because I read some horror stories about overfiring. Tonight I'm going to try for an overnight burn, so I'll pack it tight, turn down the air, and see what happens.

 

[stoveliker]

Nice! More of that fireplace in the background? Peculiar design - at least for me, I've never seen something like that.

Does that plant on the left survive? (and the box on the right? I don't know the clearances for this stove...)

 

[bholler]

As you wish!

I think I've been a bit tentative about loading it because I read some horror stories about overfiring. Tonight I'm going to try for an overnight burn, so I'll pack it tight, turn down the air, and see what happens.

View attachment 300804 View attachment 300805

Where are you at in pa? We have several fireplaces with similar tiles here. The one ice skating rink has a massive one and the tiles are all grims fairly tails

 

[bladeofanduril]

Where are you at in pa? We have several fireplaces with similar tiles here. The one ice skating rink has a massive one and the tiles are all grims fairly tails

Bucks County, not far from the Moravian Tile Works where all of those tiles were made.

 

[bholler]

Bucks County, not far from the Moravian Tile Works where all of those tiles were made.

We are more central pa some of the tiles here were made locally. Some came from Moravian

 

[Ashful]

Bucks County, not far from the Moravian Tile Works where all of those tiles were made.

Thought I recognized those. I grew up down the street from said tile works, in fact used to watch 4th of July fireworks in the lawn along Dublin Pike back in the 1970's, before they moved that up to the shrine on Ferry Rd. That property and adjacent woods was one of my childhood playgrounds.

Hope you're saving and repair said windows, rather than replacing. PM me if you want some links to resources, or have any questions. I've been doing a mix of scarfing and full frame-out rebuilds on my own, Lots of work, but so worth it, when it's done right.

Beautiful install, BTW. Jotul makes some of the prettiest stoves on the market.

 

[bladeofanduril]

The stove did its first overnight burn! I raked the coals to the front, loaded it with 4 or 5 splits of ash, and let it take off, then gradually backed down the primary air. After a few minutes with primary as low as it would go the flames went out, so I opened it just a little to get them back and let it go like that overnight. This morning nearly everything in the firebox was reduced to grey ash and some glowing embers in the very back. I raked those forward, opened the air all the way and added a split of spruce and two ash splits and the fire was going again in a couple of minutes. I'd say it went pretty well!

 

[Todd]

Did you notice if the cat was glowing when the flames went out? I’ve noticed in the past burning cat stoves that the flames would sometimes snuff out like that but the cat would take the load for awhile then some flame would come back. You may see an even longer burn with this stove as you learn it. Cat and or flue probes help fine tune your burn as well.

 

[Ashful]

Did you notice if the cat was glowing when the flames went out? I’ve noticed in the past burning cat stoves that the flames would sometimes snuff out like that but the cat would take the load for awhile then some flame would come back.

I've noticed this "returning flame" phenomenon as well, but always thought it was more due to the automatic thermostat on my stove. Essentially, I turn down, and the thermostat initially closes off air, bringing a raging stove down to my desired burn level. Flames are snuffed, and cat glows red hot. But then 30 - 60 minutes later, the stove is much cooler, so the thermostat opens a bit to allow more air, and the flame show returns for the duration of the burn.